This application claims the priority of German patent application 102 11 972.4, filed Mar. 19, 2002, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a headlight unit for a vehicle.
German Patent Document DE 34 42 902 C1 discloses a headlight unit for a vehicle which has a headlight housing covered on the front side by a lens. The headlight unit is mounted to the vehicle body by means of a support which gives way in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle under the effect of force. As a result of this design, a certain movement of the headlight unit is permitted in the event of an impact of the vehicle upon traffic participants, such as pedestrians or motorcycle or bicycle operators.
One object of the present invention is to improve such known headlight unit, such that the risk of injury to traffic participants is reduced even further.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the vehicle headlight according to the invention, which is fastened to the vehicle body, and has a headlight housing covered on the front side by a plastic pane. The pane is fixedly connected with one end of a support which yields under the effect of force, and the opposite end of the support is fastened to the headlight housing.
Due to installation space limitations, currently most headlight units can only be displaced slightly toward the rear in the event of a crash because, for example, the wheel well, is situated just behind the headlight unit. Furthermore, today's headlight units may have a mass of five kilograms or more. Because of the resulting inertia, such a headlight unit which can be displaced toward the rear would not offer sufficient protection to an impacting traffic participant.
In contrast, the headlight unit according to the invention offers sufficient protection to traffic participants because only the front-side pane yields under the effect of force, and not the entire headlight unit. The pane alone weighs so little that the inertia of its mass represents no danger to an impacting traffic participant. The rest of the headlight unit can be fixedly mounted on the vehicle body, and no space has to be reserved behind the headlight unit for a possible displacement of the entire headlight unit.
The yielding support advantageously consists of a rubber bellows. This is a simple and cost-effective possibility of implementing the desired yielding support.
In order to prevent pane from being displaced accidentally, in an advantageous construction, it has locking devices on its edge, such as noses or balls or corresponding counterparts, that are used for locking the pane in a normal position, and also permit a displacement of the pane out of its normal position in response to a defined force acting upon it. For example, spherical humps are mounted laterally on the pane, which humps are form-lockingly held in corresponding ball sockets on the headlight housing. These humps may either easily break off under the effect of force, or the headlight housing and the pane respectively have a slight elasticity so that the above-described form closure is released under the effect of force.
It is also advantageous for the pane to be connected at least also with a bumper by way of the locking devices or corresponding counterparts. In the event of an accident with a traffic participant, the latter often first contacts the bumper before he impacts on the pane of the headlight unit. In the process, the bumper is usually deformed. By virtue of the connection of the pane with the bumper, the pane already starts to partly shift to the rear when the bumper is pushed to the rear by the traffic participant's impact.
During a displacement of the pane toward the rear, it could become caught on laterally adjoining components. In order to prevent this occurrence, the pane may be guided by way of at least one guide rail. For this purpose, sliding bodies mounted, for example, on the edge of the pane, are guided in a guide rail, which may be connected with the headlight unit housing.
The pane may advantageously be displaced back into its normal position by a spring effect after the cessation of the effect of the force. As a result, the headlight need not be returned manually into its normal position, at high expenditures. (This is particularly advantageous if the impact was so weak that a displacement of the pane would not have been absolutely necessary.) The spring effect can, for example, be provided by an elastic yielding support, such as rubber bellows. However, separate springs may also be housed, for example, in guide rails.
Ideally, the pane can be displaced toward the rear by at least 20 mm viewed in the driving direction. In this case, it is assumed that the lighting device or a lens arranged in front of the latter is set back correspondingly far behind the pane so that it does not interfere with the pane when it is displaced toward the rear. In this manner, it can be ensured, starting at a possible displacement of at least 20 mm, that the impact energy acting upon the traffic participant is reduced to a biomechanically tolerable deceleration level.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.